Peoria public meeting on Northern Parkway yields little

City Councilman Carlo Leone continued his fight against the 12.5-mile Northern Parkway project Thursday during Peoria's first public meeting on the expansion that drew about 75 residents.

The Northern Parkway project is broken into three phases, with the initial phases now under construction. Design and construction won't begin on Peoria's part, phase 3, for about a decade.

The meeting hosted by the city and the Maricopa County Department of Transportation was originally scheduled for later this year. Leone had pushed for it sooner, saying it was important to have a way for residents to ask questions now.

But the Pine District councilman said he was disappointed after county representatives refused to address resident concerns and answer questions at a podium.

Peoria engineering director Andy Granger said MCDOT officials agreed only to answer questions in an open-house-style format in the back of the room.

MCDOT spokeswoman Roberta Crowe said the department wasn't ready for that type of meeting.

"To accommodate Councilman Leone and his request, we did come and bring what we had," she said.

Several MCDOT representatives spoke with residents one-on-one and in small groups, answering questions and referring to maps based on work done in 2008.

The group could not answer questions about alternative routes because that work is still being done, Crowe said.

"We're not ready to go to the public yet," she said. "The meeting was premature for us."

Residents were encouraged to fill out a contact form and leave their comments. Anyone who left an e-mail address or phone number would be notified of a meeting later this fall, Crowe said. No date has been set.

Granger said construction on Peoria's section of the parkway is a long way out, but it will still be a challenge to change the plans at this point.

"I don't think from a cost standpoint ... it's going to be seen favorably," he said. "I'm going to tell you right now it's going to be very difficult"

In the first part of the project, a four-lane Northern Parkway will connect Sarival Avenue to Dysart Road by next spring. Construction is under way near Luke Air Force Base at a cost of $61.5 million for the 4.5-mile stretch.

Next year, construction will include overpasses at Reems and Litchfield roads. The road will be extended the following year farther east to 111th Avenue.

The next several years will be spent creating a more-limited access parkway with a bridge over the Agua Fria River and more on-ramps instead of the current stop signs and lights that slow traffic.

From there, the parkway is slated to make its way into Peoria as it heads toward Loop 101 and beyond to 91st Avenue as a six-lane roadway. That leg should be completed by 2026.

About 70 percent of the funding for the roadway will come the federal level, Granger said. The rest is being paid for by Glendale, Peoria and El Mirage.

Last year, a majority of the Peoria City Council voted to remove funding for the Northern Parkway project from its capital-improvement plan, a move spearheaded by Leone.

Leone said Glendale had Peoria "handcuffed" when it entered into the parkway agreement. Peoria had to agree to partially fund Northern Parkway or Glendale would not support the Beardsley connector project, he said.

Leone said he read about the Northern Parkway project in the paper a year after discussion started. "I've been fighting this ever since," he said.

Construction would negatively impact residents of nearby County Meadows Estates and destroy two homes, he said.

Pat Temes, who lives in County Meadows Estates, said the parkway will be two blocks from her home.

She's concerned about whether there will be rubberized asphalt and sound walls to reduce noise and other impacts on her neighborhood.

Temes and other residents said an expanded east-west corridor should go through Glendale, not Peoria.